NSMB - 2022 - Hardtail Thread...

You don’t see many of those Flight saddles around. I have two.

Posted by: andy-eunson

You don’t see many of those Flight saddles around. I have two.

Is that the one with the scratch and sniff gel pach under your junk? My one of those died 20 years ago but they re-released the 1990 filte at some point which allowed me to pick up a couple. To my chagrin, what had once proved to be a bomb proof saddle had the leather wear away after one season along the edges and then the rail snapped in its second season. I've since switched to sdg saddles that are just as comfortable and take a shit kicking.

Posted by: andy-eunson

You don’t see many of those Flight saddles around. I have two.

It's a Selle Italian Troy Lee, yes I believe the model name is flight or flite. It is ok comfort wise for a few hours, but not for multiple days in a row. I prefer wtb volts, but had that one still rolling around, and for the hawk it's suitable given its current use. And it adds a bit of color and pep to the otherwise monotone frame.

So many great hardtails I can't comment on each one. Thanks for posting and anyone else that's got a hardtail fire up some photos we'd love to see them even if you've posted the photo in previous years. It's sweet to see what people have in the fleet. So far it's looking like the Docta is the preferred ride of the NSMB reader!

After a bunch of procrastinating I put the Cotic BFeMAX up on PB for sale and had it sold [pending pick up on Friday] in an hour to a guy on the island. With the 160mm fork it had Docta-esque geo so it's in great company in this thread. I'll be sad to see it go, but I tell other people that bike fit/geo is the most important thing so don't compromise on that. I needed to take my own advice. 

I'm glad the Cotic will have a good home and still be shredding Van Isle trails. :-)

My Ice Cream Truck doing Ice Cream Truck stuff. I had a pink frame, but broke & warrantied it for the green frame. I have a 29+ wheelset I typically run in the summer and two fat wheelsets for summer and winter. My only wish is that it was a little bigger, it's an XL and I still have to run an 80mm stem and could easily go to a 100 or 110. I'm not even that tall!

I'd like to build up a dedicated singlespeed klunker that's a little lighter, but I'm moving to Germany in the near future and want to keep N down. Also the idea of moving there and building up a Nicolai racing hardtail is appealing.

Posted by: michel77

…I came across a deal on Mone fork and bars on that other site, and decided to give those a try. It's a bit of a klunker look which I rather enjoy:

…

The bars are the Oddmone bars, 22.2mm diameter with a 75mm rise and 15 degree sweep. I was already running bars with a 45mm rise and 16 degree sweep but these feel super comfy and put me in a good spot.

I went out for a quick shakedown ride and had a blast! There's a bit of spring/flex to the bi-plane fork which takes the edge off but there's no mistaking you're on a rigid bike. Probably will throw an insert in the front so I can run lower pressures. I'll run this setup for a while to see how we get along, for now I'm pretty stoked and it definitely helps to keep the mellow trails spicy :)

I’m normally into a straight-blade rigid fork aesthetic but I have to say this looks amazing!

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Big tire, wide rim, big insert! Can only speak from experience but the combination changed my rigid bikes from sometimes machines to ride-almost-anywhere mountain bikes.

Another bike in the snow, in this case my 2016 Surface, which is pretty much my only Trail Bike at the moment. Yes- 2x10 and no dropper. Oh the shame! Having said that- a update is on the way for this one, and  a new stablemate by 2023. Almost certainly another hardtail, considering the latest Surface at the moment but keeping options open for now, so I will be following...

Mine has the hole down the centre. Gel Flow I think. Hollow titanium oval rails. They sat in a box for year until I pulled one out to replace a different saddle that was bottoming out on my Oneup post. Forgot how well they worked for me so I put the other one on my hardtail.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

Posted by: michel77

…I came across a deal on Mone fork and bars on that other site, and decided to give those a try. It's a bit of a klunker look which I rather enjoy:

The bars are the Oddmone bars, 22.2mm diameter with a 75mm rise and 15 degree sweep. I was already running bars with a 45mm rise and 16 degree sweep but these feel super comfy and put me in a good spot.

I went out for a quick shakedown ride and had a blast! There's a bit of spring/flex to the bi-plane fork which takes the edge off but there's no mistaking you're on a rigid bike. Probably will throw an insert in the front so I can run lower pressures. I'll run this setup for a while to see how we get along, for now I'm pretty stoked and it definitely helps to keep the mellow trails spicy :)

I’m normally into a straight-blade rigid fork aesthetic but I have to say this looks amazing!

.

Big tire, wide rim, big insert! Can only speak from experience but the combination changed my rigid bikes from sometimes machines to ride-almost-anywhere mountain bikes.

Yep, found a source on the elusive 2.8 Vigilante so got one of them plus an additional cushcore on the way :)

Here's my contribution:

Shot 1: Dogtahawk

Shot 2: Mukluk, since we are letting fat bikes in (?)

I did so much snow riding last week I got burnt out. So when the new year rolled in I ended up going for a couple trail runs for a change of pace. Not as much fun as riding, but a good way to get outside in the forest and let the bike stoke build back up.

After a few days off the bike I was ready to get drifty again. I had a few people give me the side eye as I headed towards the Cumberland trails. As per usual trails were running better than I had expected once I got into the trees and fresh tracks!

The riding was so good I went back up for a second lap.

Technically I built this back in 2020, but I haven't posted it here before and it is slowly recieving some upgrades and updates. It's the only bike I ride these days:  my Stanton Switch9er.

We just got back from a couple weeks with family in Humboldt County CA where I took it for some sweet rides in the redwoods and broke my finger in the process . . . whoops

Here's a photo from when I just built it up:

After years of riding a full suspension XC bike I've been really enjoying the hardtail experience as well as the benefits of modern slack geometry.

This year I'm planning to build another HT so my wife who is interested can start riding with me---and I'll be trying to build it up a little differently.

Posted by: reini-wagner

Posted by: sverdrup

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I am just starting a single speed experiment with it (my first time giving that a go), so would be interested to hear of others' setups on hardtails without sliders.  

That bike looks amazing, I had to look twice to realize it was not a before/after shot after a repaint. 

Interesting you matched a 160 fork with a 1° headset, how does that ride? 

I initially set up my large doctahawk (435mm chainstays) single speed and found the magic ratio at 34t front and 20t back. Both rings narrow wide (absolute black makes narrow wide ss cogs in 16,18 and 20t). I rode it like that a couple of times and never dropped a chain, even though there was some visible slack:

I tried running it with a 170mm Z1, and didn’t totally love the way the front end felt. I know it’s odd to describe a docta this way, but it felt high and steep to me. Some experimenting landed me on the 160mm 38 with angleset, which got me the slack head angle with the lower front end that I apparently was looking for. I also think the longer offset is doing something, but steering feel is voodoo for me. I just experiment until it feels right. I’m also running a 30 x 18 with similar slack until I figure out how to align a Paul Melvin tensioner. I have a microspline hub which has made finding parts more challenging.

Speaking of experiment, this bike feels like the first time I’ve been able to really get weird (it’s all relative) with a build. Andrew’s articles and the banter on this site definitely enabled that.

Riding a single speed hard tail with a 62 degree head angle and DH tires isn’t what I thought I wanted, but now that I’ve made it here, it just feels right.